Adolescence
8th edition
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Chapter Nine:
Autonomy
By Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D.
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Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 9 Overview
 Why is autonomy development an adolescent
issue?
 How does emotional autonomy develop?
 How do parenting styles influence this?
 How does behavioral autonomy develop?
 How does value autonomy develop?
 What are the major theories of moral
development?
 How do political and religious beliefs change
during adolescence?
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What is Autonomy?
 Independence
 An individual’s capacity to behave on
his or her own
 Autonomy
 Emotional components (feeling
separate from parents)
 Behavioral components (the growth of
independent decision making)
 Cognitive components (developing
personal beliefs and values)
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Autonomy Development in
Modern Society
 Today’s teens spend much
more time away from the
direct supervision of adults
than prior generations
 But today’s teens also have
become more economically
reliant on their families than
prior generations
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Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Why Is Autonomy
an Adolescent Issue?
 Erik Erikson’s Theory
 Autonomy is the central issue of
toddlerhood
 Identity is the central issue of
adolescence
 However, early adolescence is
another period of growing
independence and autonomy
 Establishing healthy sense of
autonomy is actually a lifelong
process
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Three Types of Autonomy
 Emotional Autonomy

Gaining emotional
independence in
relationships with others,
especially parents
 Behavioral Autonomy

Making independent
decisions and following
through on them
 Value Autonomy

Developing an independent
set of beliefs and principles,
resisting peer and parental
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pressures
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Development of Emotional
Autonomy
Psychoanalytic Theory:
Anna Freud
 Physical changes of puberty disrupt
family system
 Resurgence of sexual impulses increase
family tensions
 Detachment:
 Adolescents are driven to separate
emotionally from parents
 Conflict is normal part of detachment in
adolescence
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Development of
Emotional Autonomy
Modern Theories: Individuation



Process of individuation begins during infancy
Does not involve stress or turmoil
Acceptance of responsibility for choices and actions
Measure emotional autonomy by examining:




Extent to which teens deidealize parents
Extent to which teens see parents as people
Nondependency (the extent to which adolescents
depend on themselves, rather than on parents)
Extent to which the adolescent feels individuated within
the relationship with his/her parents
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Development of
Emotional Autonomy
 What triggers individuation?


Changes in teen’s appearance provoke
changes in how teen views self and how
parents view teen. This alters parentadolescent interactions
Social-cognitive development stimulates
movement toward individuation
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Age differences in four aspects of
emotional autonomy
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Development of
Emotional Autonomy
 Emotional Autonomy and
Parenting Practices
 Healthy individuation and positive
mental health are fostered by
close, not distant, family
relationships
 Conditions that encourage both
individuation and emotional
closeness facilitate autonomy
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Development of
Behavioral Autonomy
 Changes in DecisionMaking Abilities
 How do decision making
abilities improve from 7th
to 12th grade?
 Older adolescents
showed more
sophisticated abilities in:
 awareness of risks
 considering future
consequences
 turning to a consultant
 recognizing vested
interests
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Development of
Behavioral Autonomy
 Changes in susceptibility to
influence
 Conformity to peers is
higher during early and
middle adolescence
 Parents are more influential
regarding long-term issues,
basic values
 Peers’ opinions are more
influential for day-to-day
matters (music tastes or
clothing style)
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Development of
Behavioral Autonomy
 Adolescents whose
parents are authoritarian
or permissive are most
easily influenced by
peers, especially in
antisocial situations
 Adolescents from
authoritative homes are
less susceptible to
antisocial peer pressure
but more so to positive
peers
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Development of
Behavioral Autonomy
Changes in Feelings of Self-Reliance
 Adolescent girls report feeling more selfreliant than adolescent boys do
 Adolescents who have a stronger sense of
self-reliance report having
 higher self-esteem
 fewer behavior problems
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The Development of
Value Autonomy
 Moral Reasoning Development
 How individuals think about moral dilemmas
and make moral judgments
 Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory
 Used morally challenging stories (Heinz)
 More interested in the reasoning behind
people’s explanations than whether the
answer was right or wrong
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The Development of
Value Autonomy
KOHLBERG’S THREE LEVELS OF
MORAL REASONING
Preconventional Moral Reasoning
(worrying about punishment/reward)
Conventional Moral Reasoning
(following societal rules and norms)
Postconventional Moral Reasoning
(most abstract and advanced)
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The Development of
Value Autonomy
 Moral Development during Adolescence
 Research has shown that moral behavior does not
always match moral reasoning
 Contextual factors influence how a person acts when
facing moral dilemmas in the real world
 Carol Gilligan
 Argues against Kohlberg, says his theory is genderbiased
 Women may use a care orientation to moral dilemmas
 Men may use a justice orientation
 However, research does not support Gilligan’s
argument
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The Development of
Value Autonomy
 Prosocial Reasoning, Behavior, and
Volunteerism:
 Prosocial behavior (helping others)
 Prosocial reasoning becomes more sophisticated
 But changes in actual prosocial behavior, such as helping
others or empathizing with others, are not consistently found in
adolescence
 Involvement in community service leads to
 Gains in social responsibility
 Gains in tolerance
 Increases in the importance that individuals place on the
importance of helping others
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The Development of
Value Autonomy
Political Thinking
 Becomes more abstract
 Becomes less authoritarian

and less rigid
Becomes more principled
(an increase in a consistent
set of attitudes; an
ideology)
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The Development of
Value Autonomy
Religious Beliefs
 Become more abstract, more
principled, and more
independent during the
adolescent years
 The stated importance of
religion—and participation in
an organized religion—
declines somewhat during the
adolescent years
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